Saturday, April 13, 2013

Robert Mackey, New York Times; BBC Won’t Ban ‘Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,’ Adopted as Anti-Thatcher Anthem:
"The BBC on Friday rejected loud calls to ban the song “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” from its airwaves after the apparent success of a Facebook campaign to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher, the divisive former prime minister, by driving sales of the tune from “The Wizard of Oz” up the British singles chart."

Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times; Study of Babies Did Not Disclose Risks, U.S. Finds:
"A federal agency has found that a number of prestigious universities failed to tell more than a thousand families in a government-financed study of oxygen levels for extremely premature babies that the risks could include increased chances of blindness or death."

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Editorial Board, New York Times; India’s Novartis Decision:
"The ruling will allow the sale of generic versions of Gleevec in India and other countries where it is not patented at less than one-20th of the roughly $70,000 a year it costs in the United States. It will not affect the price of the drug in America.
This case is unique because it concerns an innovative and useful drug whose creation happened to straddle the change in Indian patent law. The ruling is important, nonetheless, because it establishes a limited precedent that requires drug companies to show real improvements in efficacy before they can get patent protection on updates to existing drugs in India.
That could help poor patients get drugs at prices they can afford while preserving an incentive for true innovation."

Joe Nocera, Why Rutgers Blinked; Why Rutgers Blinked:
"Pernetti is said to be one of the bright lights of college sports. Around the same time as he was dealing with both the Big Ten and the Rice video, he was on a panel at New York University School of Law at which he spoke — passionately, it seemed to me (I was on the same panel) — about the importance of putting the needs of the “student-athlete” first, and hiring “the right people.” Yet, faced with a moment of truth, he blinked.
Just like Joe Paterno, another supposed good guy, blinked. Just like they all blink when their professed ideals bump up against the ever-increasing pressure to generate cold, hard cash.
The N.C.A.A., it turns out, isn’t the only hypocrite in college sports."